 S.A.R.U.'s crane, the S.A.R.'s crane Antigone Antigone is a large non-migratory crane found in parts of the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Australia. The tallest of the flying birds, standing at a height of up to 1.8 m 5 ft 11 in they are a conspicuous species of open wetlands in South Asia, seasonally flooded Dipterocart forests in Southeast Asia, and Eucalyptus-dominated Woodlands and Gratslands in Australia. The S.A.R.'s crane is easily distinguished from other cranes in the region by the overall great color and the contrasting redhead and upper neck. They forage on marshes and shallow wetlands for roots, tubers, insects, crustaceans and small vertebrate prey. Like other cranes, they form long-lasting pair bonds and maintain territories within which they perform territorial and courtship displays that include loud trumpeting, leaps and dance-like movements. In India they are considered symbols of marital fidelity, believed to make for life and pine the loss of their mates even to the point of starving to death. The main breeding season is during the rainy season, when the pair build an enormous nest island a circular platform of reeds and grasses nearly 2 m in diameter and high enough to stay above the shallow water surrounding it. S.A.R.'s crane numbers have declined greatly in the last century and it has been suggested that the current population is a tenth or less perhaps 2.5% of the numbers that existed in the 1850s. The stronghold of the species is in India, where it is traditionally revered and lives in agricultural lands in close proximity to humans. Elsewhere, the species has been extirpated in many parts of its former range.